The sudden resignation of New York’s attorney general could complicate lawsuits where Connecticut cooperates with the Empire State.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen recently joined on in support of New York’s defense of the Clean Power Plan and challenges to a proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census.
Eric Schneiderman resigned from his post last night, hours after an article in The New Yorker revealed four women had come forward to accuse him of physical abuse.
But Jepsen said he’s not worried going forward.
“You have to understand that 99 percent of the work is handled at the staff level and Connecticut and New York continues to have a really strong relationship between my office and the office of New York,” Jepsen said.
He said Schneiderman’s biggest source of strength was on the environmental front -- where Jepsen said his counterpart used his authority to force the Environmental Protection Agency to do their job in reducing pollution from other states.
“New York and Connecticut have had a very strong partnership in raising legal issues under the Clean Air Act, and Eric was a very strong partner in that respect,” Jepsen said.
Senator Richard Blumenthal was Connecticut’s attorney general for 20 years. He believes Connecticut will be fine on joint ventures previously tied to Schneiderman. But he did emphasize one area where he hopes the New York office remains a strong player -- as backup to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of President Trump’s potential ties to Russia.
“There have been threats that the president may use his pardon power and—equally so—predictions that the New York attorney general’s office would pursue money laundering or other criminal violations if they were committed by someone, a potential defendant pardoned by the president,” Blumenthal said.
Barbara Underwood will be the acting attorney general following Schneiderman’s resignation.
